Extreme Poverty in Bolivia

Marina lives with her husband, children alongside her sister’s family and their parents in the
same home.

Here’s her story – depicting how poor housing is affecting everyone’s lives, in particular the
lack of water.

Those fortunate enough to have running water in her village aren’t allowed to share it with
anyone otherwise they risk being cut off from the distribution system.

Several generations under one roof

“My sister has part of one room and we have the other. My parents have part of another
bedroom, while the rest of the family has the other part. The reality of it is that my father’s
family is six people, mine is five, and my sister’s family is four. I live next to my parents’
room and we only have one bathroom.

Sometimes we just have to accommodate each other and work it out if we all want to use the
bath at the same time. Water comes in only once a week

As it’s the only house, we just have the one bath and one sink – in fact we only had the sink
put in about two months ago. So we just have to divide it up as to who gets it in the morning
and the evening, otherwise we’re left with no water.

We’re not connected to the sewer system here. It’s a real problem to get rid of the bath water,
or after washing our clothes. We have to get all of us together and use the bath to carry the
water to where it can be tipped out.

It’s a really long way all the way down there, so you can’t do it using the basin. Because
we’re not on the sewer system, we only get water once a week and then we have to use that to
wash, bathe ourselves, cook with – the water doesn’t last very long.”

Scavenging for water at night

“We only started having access to water at all quite recently. Before we got the sink, we used
to have to survive by going out from ten at night to collect some. Carrying it in whatever we
could find – bottles, boxes, glasses, in bags etc.

That was so that people wouldn’t notice. Otherwise we could be reported and the person with
the water supply could be cut off for passing the water on. And then no one would have
water. So, sometimes my sister and I were there carrying water from 10pm, 11pm, 12pm at
night. Sometimes even until 1 in the morning.

My mum would have to carry it, me and even my husband. He would carry water back from
work in the car, from my relatives’ houses. That’s what we used to have to do before just to
have water in the bath.” This is what poverty in Bolivia can be like.

Extreme poverty breeds extreme situations

“Once, my mother was really suffering in the night and she really needed some water. So I
went to the neighbours to ask for help, but they wouldn’t give us any water. They said “no,
we can’t we can’t because they’ll cut off the water!” Now that we have the water we get it in
big jars, for the week, but it’s still prohibited to give it away.

All the people who live above my house also have to suffer in order to get water. People
living in the hills above my house don’t have any water. The majority of people in district 9
still don’t have running water and they’re suffering every day because of the lack of it.”